


Sealing the Past

by Kalira



Category: Naruto
Genre: Caged bird seal, F/M, NejiHina Week 2019, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:53:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21696493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalira/pseuds/Kalira
Summary: An accident leads to Neji and Hinata interrupting the placement of the very first Caged Bird Seal, generations before their time. They both havewordsfor their ancestors.
Relationships: Hyuuga Hinata/Hyuuga Neji
Comments: 11
Kudos: 129
Collections: Kalira's NejiHina Week Stories (2019)





	Sealing the Past

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Day 1 of [NejiHina Week](https://nejihinata.tumblr.com/post/189003270002): Time Travel

Yoshi looked at the seal array spread out around him as his cousin nudged him into the centre and felt a frisson of anxiety. “I. . . Koitsu-san?”

“It’ll be fine.” Koitsu smiled at him and Yamaru squeezed his shoulder before stepping away. “You may want to lie down, though.”

Yoshi shifted anxiously, throat tight, and nodded. He trusted his cousin - though not always their grandparents, and _their_ cousins - but fuinjutsu made him nervous.

He was settled on the ground and Koitsu was painting something on his brow when a noise outside made them both twitch. “I don’t see where we- Wait is that-”

The door crashed open and Yoshi jolted up a bit, twisting to look. He felt the brush streak across his temple and realised Koitsu would have to start again, and winced. The intruder was. . .

The man was clearly Hyuuga, but Yoshi had _no idea_ who he was, had never seen him before. Yoshi glanced around, but no one else seemed to recognise him either.

“Who do you think you are?” Koitsu demanded without getting up from his knees, tilting his jaw up and putting aside his brush.

“. . . _excuse me_?” the man just inside the doorway turned to glare at him, and Yoshi’s eyes slid up to the mark on his brow.

“Neji. . . Darling. . .”

Yoshi leaned a bit sideways, looking behind the newcomer for a better view of the woman who had spoken. A petite Hyuuga woman with startlingly short hair stood in the doorway, and Neji turned partially back to look at her.

“We don’t know where we’ve been brought. . .” she said tentatively.

Neji huffed, scowling, eyes narrowed, as he turned back to them. His eyes lit on Yoshi’s brow and didn’t move. “We know what they’re _doing_.” Neji said, voice tight and bitter.

“You’re Hyuuga and you don’t know _where you are_?”

“Koitsu-san. . .” Yoshi said, reaching out a little towards his cousin, then hesitating.

“. . .Koitsu. _Koitsu?_ ” Neji repeated in a suddenly even sharper tone, and Yoshi twitched, looking around-

He yelped, moving hurriedly backwards, trying to get out of the way as he took in the blur that was- was Neji striking Koitsu in the face, knocking him back on the ground. It must not have been the first strike, either, though Yoshi hadn’t seen any prior, for his face was bloodied and he was reeling.

“You arrogant, cruel, _fucking lying instrument of fate_!” Neji snapped as he smoothly slid aside out of the path of a return blow, dodged Miiko’s open palm strike, and spun gracefully, knocking her aside with-

Yoshi activated Byakugan and his eyes widened as he watched Neji unerringly close off tenketsu in all three of his attackers, dodging or deflecting every blow in return and preventing them from doing the same.

“What- _What?_ ” Yamaru cried, stepping back and then edging closer to Yoshi.

“Do you have any idea what this self-important idiot was about to _do to you_?” Neji demanded, shaking Koitsu by a tight grip on his shirt and then dropping - _throwing_ \- him to the ground.

“It’s a seal to protect our eyes!” Yamaru protested, reaching for Yoshi’s arm. “Unlike the Uchiha, _we_ intend to do something to protect ourselves from such thieves!”

“Doujutsu are always tempting for those who would-”

“It’s a seal to _control us_.” Neji snapped, eyes narrow. “If it were to offer _protection_ , why is he not the first to have it applied to himself? Why is he not putting it on his child? His wife?”

Yoshi opened his mouth, then hesitated.

“The Caged Bird Seal disappears on death.”

Yoshi looked at the woman as she stepped into the room. _Her_ brow was clear.

“It is used to _control_ us, to keep us lesser, until we finally die for them.” Neji added bitterly as Yoshi’s throat tightened and his eyes went wide.

“I was born to the souke.” The woman spoke again. “I grew up watching my father make my cousins scream, with a single seal to activate that _protective measure_. And being threatened that one day it would be me, if I was not strong enough.”

“Scream-?”

“I’m sure the _agony_ they can cause at their slightest whim is only for _our protection_.” Neji said, low and harsh. He shuddered as the woman accompanying him stepped to his side and put a hand on his arm. “Hinata. . .”

Her expression twisted as she brushed a hand over the mark on his brow. “Would that I could. . .”

“I know.” Neji closed his eyes and tilted his cheek into her palm as she lowered her hand. “The fault is not yours, dear one.”

“Ko-!” Yoshi began, eyes wide, but before he could get out the name Hinata had whirled, lashing out with a single unerring strike that sent Koitsu, who had been stalking silently towards them, tumbling backwards across the floor.

“If your concern is truly to _protect_ your clan, your _family_ , as it should be,” Hinata said, her soft tones somehow almost as harsh as Neji’s sharp anger, “then search for a better way. The Caged Bird Seal divides us, hurts us, and-” she faltered, shaking her head, eyes damp as she moved back to Neji’s side.

“And does not even protect us as it is lauded to do. There are at least three nin in our time, in your future, with stolen Byakugan.” Neji said, dry and bitter. “Currently more than I know of who possess stolen Sharinan, in fact, despite the Uchiha’s supposed _carelessness_ with their doujutsu.”

Yoshi’s eyes widened. The pair . . . _flickered_ , and Yoshi activated his Byakugan again, shocked when he saw their chakra was fading in and out.

“If you would serve your clan well,” Hinata said, looking back at Koitsu, who had yet to manage to rise once more, “find another path. This one leads only to pain and hatred and death. Please turn aside now, for it is far easier than to try to undo the harm done by you now with this choice, and those following you who have upheld it.”

“Don’t-” Neji broke off, jaw tight, and Hinata stroked his cheek, then met Yoshi’s eyes, fathomless and sincere and dizzying.

“Please do not let them do this to you, Yoshi-san. To any of you.” Hinata implored, and within a breath they were gone.

It took some hours longer to put things to rights after they disappeared, releasing blocked tenketsu and assisting Koitsu and the one other clan member who were more badly battered to the iryou nin for care.

Koitsu was in such poor shape it took two days before the seal room was returned to the necessary state for the procedure the two strangers had interrupted. Yoshi did not realise until his cousin brought him there once more. He looked at the place awaiting him, then up at Koitsu.

“No.” Yoshi said firmly, a little shocked that Koitsu would _try_ this again.

“It is for your _protection_.” Koitsu said, and Yoshi thought of the pair of _their clanmates_ , from some future path; Hinata who had spoken with such firm shades of duty that he could only guess she was clan head herself, Neji who had warned and cursed with bitter anger.

“You would ignore such a warning?” Yoshi questioned, taking a step backwards.

“It is no curse, it is a seal to protect our doujutsu! Our clan!” Koitsu insisted, looking exasperated. It did not make Yoshi any more inclined to step forwards into the place he knew was awaiting him, to have the mark he had seen on Neji’s brow put on his.

“No.” Yoshi said again, shaking his head. “I will not.”

“I am your clan head!” Koitsu said sharply.

“You are. You are souke, and you are the head of my clan, you may order me to a mission that may claim even my life, but I am _not_ a slave and I will not allow myself to be sealed this way.” Yoshi said, with another shake of his head. He was stunned when Yamaru seized him and dragged him towards Koitsu and his inks, but fought free of his cousin and pulled out of reach. “If you wish us to be _safe_ , find a better way! Something that will truly _protect_ us . . . something you would wear yourself.”

Koitsu stared at him, but Yoshi elected not to remain while he no doubt considered the defiance offered.

**Omake:**

“Oh!”

Neji caught Hinata as she swayed, but they both toppled to the floor and he wasn’t entirely sure the world wasn’t _actually_ spinning around them.

They had fallen back in time and found themselves facing the first Hyuuga clan head to put the cursed Caged Bird Seal upon his people, Neji wasn’t quite willing to rule out anything at this point. Including the possibility that they were not, in fact, back home.

“Hinata? Are you all right, dear one?” Neji asked, rubbing his hand up and down her arm.

Hinata sighed, sinking back against him and curling her fingers into his shirt. Neji didn’t protest or pull away, wrapping one arm around her waist as he took in the room around them. It was Hinata’s research room, with the seal he vaguely recalled from that morning, when he had come to disturb her, laid out on the floor.

And there was the tray of tea and sweets he had brought to try and coax her out, as she had never come to bed the night before, the porcelain shattered across the floor in a mess.

“I am well.” Hinata said, though she shook her head. “I only cannot believe- I-” She clenched her fists and made a loud, angry noise, shaking her head again. “That arrogant _bastard_ , how could he propose to treat his clan that way?”

Neji blinked, then wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. “Not everyone is so kind as you, dear one. Nor so devoted.”

Hinata huffed, but returned his embrace with soft warmth, as ever, leaning her head against his shoulder. She pulled away after a time, and Neji sighed, loosening his grip.

“What _was_ this seal supposed to do?” Neji asked, looking at the nearest bit of it. Hinata had taken a deep interest in sealwork - because of the Caged Bird Seal, Neji knew, and both hated it and loved her for it - since she became clan head; Neji knew far less on the subject. “It was not _supposed_ to take us - you - back in time, was it?”

“Oh no!” Hinata assured him. “No, and I am not sure went wrong. . .”

That was _not_ reassuring, though it would have been even less had Neji not known Hinata so well.

Two days later she was still working out every last detail she could find of the seal she hadn’t even intended to activate yet. Neji let himself into her research room with another tray of tea and snacks, wondering if he should deputise someone else to do this while he was on his mission next week or if she would be finished with this particular task by then.

“Neji!” Hinata gasped, and Neji’s brows rose as she knocked several books off her desk, jolting unsteadily to her feet.

“Hello, dear one.” Neji said patiently, making his way to her without crossing any of the seal lines on the floor, inactive or not. He put the tray down in the space the books had just been. “Are you well?”

“ _Neji!_ ” Hinata reached up to his face, wavering on her feet, and Neji stilled.

“Hinata?” Neji questioned, concerned.

Hinata’s fingers brushed his brow. “Neji. Neji your- the seal- Neji _it’s gone_.”

Neji froze, eyes wide, and barely felt it as Hinata’s fingers brushed over his brow once more. The Caged Bird Seal. Gone. As Hinata had been trying to accomplish, fruitlessly, for three years.

“Gone?” he repeated thinly, and Hinata nodded rapidly, eyes damp, staring at him.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sure things will change other than just the seal disappearing, given Yoshi's changing history the way he has . . . but that first, very noticeable step has definitely been shown!


End file.
